Random Fact Sheet #53 – A Smorgasbord of 40 Surprising Facts

Idlewild, Michigan which from 1912 until the end of segregation was known as 'The Black Eden' was one of the few places where black Americans could fish, hunt, vacation, party and buy land in peace, without interference.

27. The opposite of deja vu is jamais vu. It is most commonly experienced when a person momentarily does not recognize a word or, less commonly, a person or place, that she or he knows. This can be achieved by anyone by repeatedly writing or saying a specific word out loud.

28. Belgium has a Time Credit System that entitles employees to take a one-year secured absence to prevent burn-out and provide an opportunity to pursue other things in life.

29. A secret room under the Medici Chapel is covered in charcoal sketches by Michelangelo, who lived there for three months while hiding from the Pope.

30. Despite the common misconception, in most countries ship captains, are not actually able to perform marriages, and the United States Navy had to make a rule specifically forbidding captains from doing so.

Julius Caesar once was reading about Alexander the Great when suddenly, he burst into tears. His friends asked him why, and he replied “Do you not think, it is a matter for sorrow that while Alexander, at my age, was already king of so many peoples, I have as yet achieved no brilliant success?

32. The name "Imogen" may well be a typo. Its first recorded use is in Shakespeare's Cymbeline. It is thought that he wrote "Innogen", a common Celtic name at the time. The printers misread the "nn" as "m" and thus a new name was born!

33. The original idea behind Marge Simpson's hair was to conceal large rabbit ears. The gag was intended to be revealed in the final episode of the series, but they weren't expecting the show to last 30 years.

34. FDA has banned the use of microplastic in rinse-off cosmetics.

35. Its implied by the initial writer for the Pokémon anime that there were plans to end the series by the Gold and Silver era and he reveals that he had an ending drafted, in which the last episode reveals an elderly Ash Ketchum had hallucinated the entire events of the show.

When he was the Governor of Tennessee, former US President Andrew Johnson made with his own hands a very handsome suit of clothes and sent it to the Governor of Kentucky, who had been a blacksmith in his young days. He forged a shovel and tongs and sent them to Johnson.

37. Thieves in Paris recently drilled through a limestone wall in the Catacombs into a high-end apartment building wine cellar and made away with $300,000 worth of vintage wine.

38. The violin played on the Titanic by Wallace Hartley was found in the wreckage and is now considered to be one of the most well preserved artifacts of the ships sinking.

39. Belgium and the Netherlands allow Euthanasia for severe treatment-resistant mental illnesses.

40. During his Nobel Prize speech, Alexander Fleming warned about the potential for antibiotic resistance with improper use of Penicillin.